LEGAL RESPONSIBILITIES OF PARENTS.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XXVII, Issue 4330, 1 July 1871, Page 3

LEGAL RESPONSIBILITIES OF PARENTS.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir,— l beg to express my thanks for your fair and able article on the subject of my letter. While you dissent 'from my views, it seems to me to be more in details than on the principles themselves, and to arise partly from a Blight misapprehension of my meaning. You are aware how difficult it is to guard against this when such a subject has to be treated within the limits of a newspaper letter ; especially as I have not the conscience of some of your correspondents in asking for space in your columns. 1. I assert only that responsibilities and rights Bhould be concurrent. How far either should or do go, I have not pretended to say. ' The history of juvenile crime presents tens of thousands of cases in which children havei be.en taught and , compelled to become criminals by their parents, while the punishment "falls on the poor 'children. I say, ,let ifc fall, on the parents. He who tempts or induces another to crime is worse than the criminal (as in the matter of intemperance).* ' Nor shall' we eVer lessen] crime till we moet it at the fountainhend.t 2. My faith in the result of Christian parental education reposes on .the Divine promise and love. God has abundantly assured us of His' blessing so far* as we conform to Bis laws, as much in the world of mmdks in the' world of matter. But we need' wisdofi to discover, as well as goodness to obey, | those ', laws, < which porhaps. j was,.an omission in my former letter. I believe as I do (because, a .most careful study, of ; the Bible | has led me to regard, to regard' the Divine Spirit or- Holy Ghost -as 'ft constant co-ojj&'O/tgr with man iaJfU that/id true 1 and good; especially in /so truly- Grod-like,a thing'as thafrbf fitting children for the high destinies 'of , their toeing. ;' •' The^sda'ge; you quotejrespeoting God " giving jfche' increase, is not), I submit, intended te teach us the uncertainty ,- but certainty, of the Divine blessing, njnfortu^ately, it is generally perverted to the! fdrn^er sense.' 3. I think rrfuTalloV' for exceptions, such as that you name of Dr. -Drapepv i i Apparent exceptions Are -every- ' i -sihereT even to the most rigid latvsof nature.. I||| lihave-a^cM^icFion that the e'xplan"a<rd'it" might? be discovered., At, wise and good father* with~an fi unwisP W* ve^s,l ft o.^an J-Jjspjscjb,, .jeoTutlboM^tQ^vPi^wyafflC^nßtqueafa^ tpfaim altraii^g. < »i > l«thiak. j ,Bir,^rdtt 1 yiil^g-*-

80 clearly as to make me shrink from expressing ray views, and, when I do so* doing it with the greatest reserve. Not that' I care one straw for popular prejudice, but 1 would not willingly hurt one parent's mind. Yet sometimes truth demands sacrifice. . 4. My views are certainly no£ Mai thusiao, if I understand the doctrines of Maltlnis, He imagines the possibility of the world being overpeopled, I do not, but of its being wrongly peopled. He would have arrangements to" curb the .increase of population. I woulclnot. I wonld have marriage and parentage brought under the regulation of the highest moral principles. I am not well acquainted with the Malthusian teachings ; but ifc was a revulsion from some of them that first led me to tho reflection that has issued in my present conviction. I do not indeed expect that many will agree with me at present. Some few will, I know. Should I live twenty years, I shall find those .few increased to a very respectable number. My aim is not to gain adherence to my views, but td awaken attention to a subject of such profound interest, a practical regard of which must so enormously affect the well-being of our race. Most of all, sir, I believe that the prevalence of these convictions would have a most hallowing influence on households. Parents and children would feel themselves in a new atmosphere, if they realised their relation in its moral, instead of its mere percuniary, bearings. With these explanations and limitations I do not shrink from any of the*: conclusions involved in what I have written.— l am, &c, Samuel Edger.